Report: Inter strike £70M deal for United castaway Lukaku

Inter have reached an agreement with Manchester United over the signing of Romelu Lukaku, according to the Guardian's Fabrizio Romano.

The Nerazzurri made a strong push Wednesday, presenting a new offer reportedly worth £70 million with add-ons. Federico Pastorello, Lukaku's representative, traveled to London to finally bring an end to one of the summer's longest transfer sagas.

United reportedly rejected Inter's opening £54-million bid in July before entertaining the idea of a swap deal with Juventus involving Lukaku and Paulo Dybala.

But things changed over the past week. The Red Devils backed out of negotiations with Juve, citing Dybala's excessive wage demands, and their relationship with Lukaku began to deteriorate. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reprimanded the 26-year-old for posting a tweet last Friday that revealed sensitive statistics, and the club reportedly fined him for skipping training.

Lukaku worked out at former club Anderlecht's facilities while the furor around him persisted.

It was unclear whether Inter would return with another bid. Beppe Marotta, Inter's chief executive, said in July that their first offer was strong enough, but conceded that "anything can happen on the market."

There were reports that Inter had to sell Mauro Icardi before increasing their offer. All the while, manager Antonio Conte spoke of his desire to coach Lukaku.

"For sure Lukaku, we are talking about a good player, a striker that in the past I tried to buy when I was Chelsea's coach," Conte said.

Lukaku scored 42 goals in 96 appearances after making the move from Everton in 2017 for a reported £75 million.